Holden's Tim Slade sets lap record in Sydney sessions.

Supercars: Caruso, Drive Racing on the pace in pre-season test

Holden's Tim Slade sets lap record in Sydney sessions.

Supercars: Caruso, Drive Racing on the pace in pre-season test

16 Feb 2018David McCowen

Holden racer Tim Slade says it’s too early to tell whether the new ZB Commodore represents a fresh benchmark for Supercars racing despite setting a new lap record on its debut at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Slade, defending World Time Attack champion at the Western Sydney raceway, says the car “felt good” when recording a 1m28.61s mark against the clock.

“It all ran faultlessly throughout the day,” he said.

“Everyone has put in a massive effort to get all the cars to this point. Thanks to everyone for that.

“Even though it’s only a test day, it’s a nice little reward for everyone and all the work they’ve put in so far.”

Slade’s Holden ran on new-specification Dunlop tyres at the test. Like all of Holden’s regular runners, his car remains powered by a 5.0-litre V8 motor likely to be swapped in favour of a twin-turbo V6 next year.

The South Australian’s time was 0.2s quicker than the previous record set by Ford’s Chaz Mostert in 2016.

“Obviously it felt really good at the end there,” Slade said.

“I don’t know if that’s the car, or the tyre or what.

“You can’t really tell anything at this stage... in theory the aero package - the actual downforce numbers - should be the same. It won’t be until we get to Adelaide and the first qualifying session and race done, and then we will have a better understanding of how the aero package is different.”

Nissan Motorsport driver Michael Caruso topped the timesheets in early running before recording the third-fastest time in a sprint at the end of the day.

Caruso’s brand-new Nissan Altima wore fresh Drive.com.au colours on its public debut. The factory-backed racer said his car performed well on the Sydney Motor Sport Park circuit.

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“We had a really exciting day today, to welcome Drive to the team has been brilliant. Everyone has been really receptive – the car looks brilliant, which always gives everyone that little extra pep in their step,” he said.

“It’s been quick all day. We finished up toward the top of the timesheets, so there’s lots to go over before we head to Adelaide and hopefully start our championship in a strong way.

“It sounds like there was a bit going on today behind the scenes and on the racetrack – a few teams will be a bit busier than others.”

While DJR Team Penske frontrunner Fabian Coulthard finished second, the day proved forgettable for his team-mate in Scott McLaughlin, who was on top of the timesheets in afternoon running shortly before slamming into the wall at turn one. McLaughlin’s misfortune came as a result of a flat tyre that triggered one of the heaviest crashes of his career.

2016 series champion Shane van Gisbergen earned the ire of former team-mate Jonathon Webb following a minor incident between the pair on-track. Van Gisbergen had been aggressive in pursuit of rivals on Friday, leading to a physical confrontation between the two in pit lane.

Many of teams could not afford to be reckless on track, as parts for Holden’s new ZB Commodore are in short supply. A lack of components forced competitors to share spoilers between teams and drivers in shake-down runs ahead of the Sydney test, which exposed a design flaw in racing bodywork developed for the European-built successor to the Australian Commodore.

A protruding front ‘splitter’ on the Commodore can flex and break at speed, forcing some teams without spare parts into running repairs and others onto the sidelines as brittle bodywork became impossible to fix.

The problem halved the amount of track time available to veteran racer Garth Tander, who told Drive “we’ve had a few issues here and there, but we generally got through our program”.

The 2018 Supercars Championship starts at the Adelaide 500 on March 1-4.